What Is the Relationship between a Searcher and a Block Builder in the Post-Merge Ethereum Ecosystem?
The relationship is a specialized, competitive marketplace facilitated by protocols like Flashbots. Searchers identify MEV opportunities and create transaction "bundles" that exploit them.
They then submit these bundles, along with a fee (bribe), to block builders. The block builder aggregates bundles from various searchers, constructs the most profitable block, and sends it to the block proposer (validator) for signing and inclusion on the chain.